Going INTO THE WILD

Into the Wild hits theaters on Friday, September 21. The long-awaited film is based on the book of the same name by Jon Krakauer. It's the true adventure of Chris McCandless, who hitchhiked, hopped freight trains, and tramped around the Western US in the early 90s before taking a one-way trip into the Alaska wilderness.
Emile Hirsch (Lords of Dogtown) plays Chris, and the film was directed by Sean Penn.

Plan to see the movie in theaters this weekend, and...

*** Visit www.intothewild.com to get a sneak peek and interact with the movie.

*** On MySpace? Add myspace.com/intothewildmovie as a friend.
*** Then go to www.digihitch.com and post in the Great Campfire forums about your own Into the Wild experience.

*** Join us at Slab City in the low desert of Southern California for our annual New Year Hitchhiker Happening. Slab City is an off-the-grid community of travelers and waysiders featured in the film. More event details will be announced soon at gathering.digihitch.com.

Hope to see you on digihitch.com and the road!

Hitchhike America with the Salman all month long

On the road now and sending blog entries/ photos to http://hitchhiking.digihitch.com/salman - follow along as Morgan 'Salman' hitchhikes cross-country from Phoenix, Arizona, to Lowell, Massachusetts, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Morgan's current location is Denver. Next stop? Britt, Iowa, for the Nat'l Hobo Convention.

50 Years On the Road with Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac's On the Road was first published in 1957, introducing a Beat Generation & shifting the culture of American movement into high gear. The story follows Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty as they careen cross-country in search of the next great place and epiphany, fueled by jazz, speed and city lights. 50 years later, On the Road still motivates and dizzies readers. Millions have taken to the highway with the same burn- hitchhiking, driving or hopping trains.

This summer digihitchers will be gathering to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of On the Road and enjoy the hitchhiking connection. Lowell, Massachusetts- Jack Kerouac's hometown- will host the original manuscript from June thru September in a Summer of Kerouac event. Watch for meetup details in our Great Campfire forums, and expect to hear cast info and more about the long-awaited movie version of the book, slated for release in 2009.

Read more about Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation at beat.digihitch.com

- get even more road kicks at www.digihitch.com

New Year's Eve - Hitchhikers Head Back to Slab City, California

For the 4th straight year, hitchhikers will be making their way from across the USA -and even Canada- to Slab City, an off-the-grid squatters community in the deserts of Southern California, by the Salton Sea. One of the first things you see coming into this 'city' just a few miles east of Niland is Salvation Mountain, Leonard Knight's hillside creation of painted gospel messages. Past that is a sea of RVs and mostly friendly old-timers, but stick around long enough and you'll meet all kinds of travelin' folk, young and old.

Diehards stick around year-long, such as Builder Bill- creator of outdoor music venue, The Range. Here most every winter weekend you can enjoy music of the jam-band variety. Got an instrument, get up on stage and join the band!

Hitchhikers set up camp at The Tanks, next to the S.P.A.Z. crew, or at The Bunkers. Camping free out in the desert, they swap stories and share hitchhiking resources around the campfire, ambling down Main Street to talk it up with the locals or catch some music from Insane Wayne and the gang.

Planning to head out to The Slabs this year? Hitchhikers, RVers and road trippers can get directions to Slab City and Niland here. Want to see what else goes on? Check out digihitch's Slab City page, or Slab City on MySpace. Other pages with photos and info include www.desertdutch.org and www.slabcity.org

Let us know you're coming! Visit the official New Year Hitchhiker Happening homepage with details and discussions.

Thumbs Up Australia - Hitchhiking the Outback

Author Tom Parry contacted us a few weeks ago about promoting his new book, Thumbs Up Australia - Hitchhiking the Outback and sent us a few copies to give away to our digihitch members. It's a good read about a British bloke and his French girlfriend who wing it down under for a season, meeting the locals and tramping through Outback towns that most people just breeze by in busses.

With all the winter travelers heading south, we decided to do a southbound for the winter theme on the digihitch frontpage, with special listings of all the places lo-budget travelers go, including Mexico, Southwest USA, Southeast Asia and, of course- Australia. Parry also offered up a Australia hitchhiking description for our pages.

We added some winter travel book recommendations in our digihitch aStore - check em out!

Look for more word about the giveaway on digihitch this week. We also have hitchhiking books by Irv Thomas, Kinga Freespirit and Joe Mack to gift to a few lucky travelers. You may not be able to pack em all for the road, but they're good off-road reading.

digihitch.com in the blogosphere and bookmarkorama

digihitch.com has now been around over 5 years and we're glad to see all the hitchhikers, freight hoppers and road trippers coming in from the road to join us.

The site has been at the top of google.com search listings for the word 'hitchhiking' (and others, like road culture) for a while now, but we want to make it easier for our road brethren to find us. We're now hooked up with del.icio.us, technorati, myspace, furl, digg, Yahoo My Web and a slew of others. Wherever you happen to find us on the web- create an association or give an add, tag, bookmark or feed read. We'll keep the good stuff from the road coming!

Bass Drum Ben - hitchhiker bottoms up in newspaper

World hitchhiker and digihitch featured writer Bass Drum Ben appears this week in the Antarctic Sun newspaper. Ben has been down on the ice in Antarctica since late September, working his 2nd 'summer season' (winter for us northerners) at McMurdo Station.

Ben's goal to hitchhike all 7 continents before the age of 30 is no secret. He'll accomplish his quest this summer when he hitchhikes through South America. Another mile marker is an upcoming documentary film featuring Ben (due Spring 2007- more info from digihitch.com soon). Filmed in August and September 2006, Ben hitchhiked from North Carolina to the Grand Canyon in Arizona in his day-glo yellow hitchhiking suit. Morgan 'Salman', digihitch editor, was along for the ride as a film crew member and had a few kudos to give Ben in the Antarctic Sun article written by Peter Rejcek.

Stay tuned to digihitch.com for more adventures from Bass Drum Ben. Join his mailing list for regular updates and photos, and read his hitchhiker bio here for travel info along with book, music and movie recommendations.

For the Antarctic Sun article featuring Bass Drum Ben, download the Oct. 29th issue here by clicking the newspaper link in the top right corner and turn to page 12.

Good going, Ben! See you topside next year!

New Year Hitchhiker Happening in the California Desert

For three years now, hitchhikers have been coming together at the end of the year to celebrate the New Year's holiday together. It's a great opportunity to share stories and swap tips with like-minded travelers -- and enjoy the sunny, mild weather of southern California.

Slab City is a vagabond community like no other. Located 190 miles southeast of Los Angeles along the Salton Sea, "the Slabs" -as it is called by locals- is an abandoned Navy Base that is squatted in the winter by RVers, off-gridders, hippies and other interesting characters. Some folks even stay year-round (though the temperature can soar well above 120 degrees in the summer!).

If you are a hitchhiker (or used to be!), or relate to the hitchhiking ethic, plan to join us. Some travelers have already arrived, though the event begins on Dec. 29th and goes through January 2nd.
This is a do-it-yourself event. Bring what you will need to camp out under the stars, along with food and other necessities. A few grocery stores are a few miles away in the town of Niland. Enjoy the sights of Slab City (including surreal Salvation Mountain), along with live music, story circles and informal workshops. Bring an instrument, too!

Get all the details on the Hitchhiker Happening homepage (click here!)

Welcome to the off-site blog of digihitch.com

This blog was created to support the blogs of our digihitch.com members and share news and tidbits that relate to hitchhiking and upcoming events.

Visit our site at www.digihitch.com for the full scoop!